During his one on one discussion at the Texas Tribune Festival, Michael Avenatti spoke about possibly running for President and how there needs to be the correct match up of candidates if Donald Trump were to run again in 2020.
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After mentioning that Trump beat out 16 to 17 qualified candidates on the road to the White House and beat the most qualified candidate, saying, “No one has ever been more qualified for the office of the Presidency as Hillary Clinton,” he continued, “All of the qualifications and all of the policy depth in the world doesn’t mean anything if you can’t beat the opponent.”

He went on to say that the Democrats should not pick the most qualified candidate for fear of having a repeat of 2016 saying instead, “Can the person beat Donald Trump? Because if they cannot beat Donald Trump, they have no business being the Democratic nominee.”

Avenatti continued saying that if the economy holds until 2020, then it will be extremely difficult for Trump to lose, saying, “he is not to be underestimated. He is a moron about a lot of things, but he is brilliant as it relates to other things: He’s brilliant about messaging, campaigning, turning out his base, social media, and ability to control the media. He is. He is brilliant at these things.”

He continued, “[It’s] going to be an cage match — a brutal campaign of epic proportions — with an enormous amount at stake and I don’t believe that you can nominate somebody who is like the 16 or 17 other candidates, that he beat, and win.”

He concluded this point by saying, “Do I think I am the only one who can beat him? No. Not by any stretch. I think there are a handful of people who can beat him, but they have to be able to stand on a debate stage with him and go head-to-head. They’ve got to be able to operate in the media environment that we find ourselves in and they’ve got to be a fighter. The Democrats need a fighter and, quite honestly, we have too much at stake… The people who depend on us most cannot afford our gentleness any longer.”